The aim of the Go Holiday news blog is to provide daily UK and Worldwide holiday, tourism and travel news, information and comment for consumers and providers.

Friday, 26 February 2016

New record for Oz tourism

AUSTRALIA’S visitor economy continues to grow, with the latest numbers confirming that 2015 was another record-breaking year for overseas arrivals, says the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF). The number of overseas tourists rose by 8.2% to 7.4 million, of whom 4.2 million were return visitors. The country’s four leading source markets were New Zealand, China, Britain, and the US.

Total tourist spend for the year was A$13.4 billion.

‘There are very few industry sectors in #Australia at the moment that can claim to be seeing consecutive years of strong growth as we can say about tourism,’ said Margy Osmond, TTF CEO. ‘We are continuing to see massive growth in the China market which has recorded 21.9 per cent growth in 2015 compared to the previous year.

‘This is what happens when you invest in the tourism sector – you see a strong uptick in visitor numbers and that means more Australian jobs and more economic activity in our cities and regional communities. Tourism is a booming industry for Australia and it’s one of the key pillars of our future economic success. We need a stronger partnership between government and industry that puts tourism at the heart of Australia’s future economic growth strategy to help fill the post-mining boom void.

‘We need to see more investment in Australia’s tourism industry by federal, state, and territory governments – they are all making tough financial decisions in their up upcoming budgets, but the evidence shows that investing delivers a strong long-term financial return.’

Ms Osmond said that more than 63 percent of overseas visitors in 2015 had been to the country previously, which highlighted the importance of the return visitor market to Australia’s tourism economy. ‘The first rule of any good business is that retaining existing customers is cheaper than attracting new ones – so it’s crucial to provide the best visitor experience possible and strong attractions with smart marketing to keep them coming back, because return visitors spend just as much on average as those during their first visit.’ Go Holiday news : www.govillasandcottages.co.uk